Paper Circuit Jewels

Make-HER Goes to ALAAC15!

#LadyMakers Lindsay Balfour and Tenaya Hurst helped spread the word about the Make-HER program at American Library Association’s 2015 conference in San Francisco. You can read about the presentation here.

Librarians from around the country got to try their hands at this mini Make-HER project designed and led by Lindsay. To make your own glowing paper circuitry jewel, all that’s needed is a 3 volt battery, conductive copper tape, an LED light, a small binder clip, and this paper template (this is a set of four).

For complete instructions, click through this slide show.

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Tips and tricks:

Try using one long line of tape instead of many pieces

Sandwich LED leads between 2 pieces of copper tape for a better connection

Make sure you connect the positive (longer) lead of the LED to the tape coming from the positive side of the battery

When you attach your tape to the top of the battery, make sure to put the non-sticky side of the tape on the battery first, and then attach the tape to the battery with another layer of copper tape

Draw out what you think your circuit should look like before you put the tape down

Different LED colors use different amounts of power from the battery, so it’s more reliable to use only one color per circuit

Separate the LED legs when attaching them to the circuit and bend the positive leg so it is easy to remember